, 1887-02-17
LOVE MONTH.

The season when the minds Of
men and maidens lightly turn to
Thoughts Of love IL certainly here.
It commences on st. Valentines
day, and deride the old superstition
much rs We may one Is inclined,
after looking out on the world, to
say rs We do about their old super
etitiOn, "after all there must he
something In It," Suddenly all ami
mated nature becomes uneasy and
frlsky, rs though there was flea
under its shirt. An insane desire to
break forth into song Is manifested
by creatures only capable OF produc-
Ing hOrrid discOrd. Tie jay bird
fancies he IL u lark, and the wren n
canary. The woods are vocal and
the fields are gay. This Is not the
season of song but Of dissonance, for
everything with voice Insists on
screaming and screeching. If
st. Valentine is responsible for all
this racket there is no music in him,
and 1t is easy to imagine the old
rogue hiding in II grove and holding
his sides us he chuckles ut the awful
bother he has made, just as
the bellows boy behind the big
organ suckers at the confusion he
pretends was accidental, when,
he shuts off the lines in the middle
of grand musical climax. The
amount of tender verse that appear
about this time is simply appalling.
The newspapers, great and small,ar
reader who boasts that he was never
guilty of such foOling, bat who was
known rs the biggest tlirt In his
township, wriths and grumbles
and groans in agony.
A very respectable lady who was Il
grandmother, was recently married
on st. Valentines day. The mature
years Of the parties to this ceremony
would ordinarily have protected
them, but love Is master of cere-
monies at this season and is then
most frolicsone imp. AT such times
he delights to convert old people or
dinarly staid and sensible into II
most absurd and ridiculous pairs,
and they 90 to billing and cooling
like turtle doves, and all of their in
Vulnerable friends join them.
On the occasion referred to II friend
of the bride broke forth rs follows:
o. - I,n ct Nula
'To. mo-, row, tomorrow she will be mine
"When the air is ablaze with flashing
Wings"
''Like priceless pivels, the beautiful
things,
''The birds will mate, and my lady fair
"Will list at last her lovers prayer.
go, rarer than rurest OF birds be mine.
"My own, bright, beautiful Valentine"
Think Of grandmother being
"My bright, Iny, beautiful, my
Valentine" and all her little grand
children bowling in concert as
she hies away "in loves sweet
thrall." At the approach of such a
time man or woman who is in
danger should go into retreat, be-
take themselves to some secluded
spot and read Zimmerman on SOli-
tude, or Burton's Anatomy of Mel
ancholy, or some such light and
cheerful literature.
at such time the reflections of an
author are consolatOry and cheering.
"Being what you are, it is quite
certain that il you had done the
foolish thing you did, you would
have done something else as bad or
worse. Be thankful it is far better
than your disease. The burde
which lay on you SO heavily may
have saved you from making an in
expressible fool OF yourself. a man
of sixty dangling after some silly
girl Of five and twenty is an imagin-
ary object of contemplation. Even
he suspects himself to be fool; ev-
erybody around knows it,"